Slumber Party

Kathryn has been begging me for a slumber party since her birthday. Be careful what you wish for... Kathryn and Sam's friend Grace is in the process of moving into town. Her parents have been busy painting the new house and moving stuff from 45 min away into town. Grace has been spending several noghts between here and Sam's house. The girls have been like the three Muskateers. They have played in the pool, done arts and crafts, made up a concert together, in all they have had a wonderful time together. Haddy and Hannah are Kathryn and Samantha's best friends since Orlando. Because they moved to Monticello we do not get to see as much of them as we used to so I arranged last week for the girls to come and spend the night. It turned into a party. They were so excited to see each other they were bouncing off the wall like a golf ball in a tile bathroom. They got here at 4pm and I just got them to lay still enough to try to go to sleep.
Kathryn and Hannah pulled out all her little pet shop friends and had them scattered all over her room. They were making cities for them. The older girls set up the tents in the living rooma dn made forts and then decided to play hide and seek. Let me tell you I did not think there were that many places to hide in my house but these are some creative children. They crawled into spaces I did not think they would fit into but some houw they did. Haddy won the most she is very good at this game.
Of course it was a junk food night. We made icees, and they had pizza, chicken fingers and fries for dinner, and popcorn and a movie into the evening. I am so glad I did this for Kathryn. She adores her friend and does not get to see her much so I felt this was important to do before school started again. Thomas of course hid out in the back room away from the giggles and the noise. his loss because we had fun.

On another note I go back into the work force tomorrow. I am not thrilled about it but we do what we have to do to survive. Will let you know how it goes.

St Marks

This morning Tom and Kathryn left with Amanda, Robert and Sam to go fishing in Cairo. By mid morning they decided the fish were not going to bite so they called me up to see what I was doing. I was in the process of straightening the office some more. They asked if I wanted to go to St marks lighthouse with them. Let's see cleaning vs field trip ummm tough decission...I of course went to St Marks.
It really was a fun and relaxing day. I did incorporate a few teachable moments into the day. We talked about why there are lighthouses and we looked at the animals that live in that habitat. After this picture they all went fishing and I found a chair and read a book from the embankment. I wanted to be with them but fishing is not my cup of tea. So I was there in my own way.

In these first two pictures the girls found a starfish on this rock. The starfish is easier to see in the second picture. They also found tons of hermit crabs. It took Kathryn a while before she would touch one let alone pick one up but by the end of the day she was an old pro at it.

There were many different types of birds to see.
This egret landed right in front of Tom and Robert while they were out fishing for crabs and scallops. In all honesty they only came up with a few oysters. It was not a good day for fishing all around. once we got there they realized that the tide was going out and that the fishing was going to be lousy. even though they did not catch anything we all had a great day together.
As we were leaving the park in the fresh water we found a few gators. Apparently people have been feeding them because every time we stopped instead of running away they would come toward the car like they were expecting us to throw some food out to them.

Look carefully on the horizen and you can see the shape of our last encounter.
Please post a comment if you read this so I can see who visits. Thanks

VBS

Last week was all about VBS. Because I was the director over the preschool I was kept hopping all week. Our VBS this year was called Power Lab. As you can guess it was all about science. To start off the week the kids made these Brainie Boppers to get their brains geared up for thinking and exploring. This one craft was the most requested one in all the age groups including the adults. It was officially done by the K - 2nd grade but several people went to Ms Nora at the end of the day asking for extra supplies to make one of their own. I proudly wore mine all week.Joshua came from South Carolina to visit and participate in VBS. Grace came for Wednesday and Thursday. Even though she is in a younger grade than Sam she joined Sam's group and had a blast. At night my living room floor was wall to wall children. I had Grace, Sam, Josh, and Kathryn. The giggle fest that went on before bed was fun and frustrating. But in their defence they got up each morning with a smile and no fussing. Kathryn also invited her friend Grace who came on Tuesday and Thursday.

Tuesday our story was about Jesus and Peter walking on the water, so this day our activites focused on sink and float activities. The children added baking soda to water and dropped in rice. as the bubbles attached to the rice it made the rice "dance" in the water.
In the preschool we filled a wading pool with bubble solution and had the children stand on a brick. Then we enclosed them in a bubble. We did this on Monday but it was so popular that we kept it up all week and the bubble solution only got stronger the longer we let it sit there.

Joshua is putting water into a test tube. They then aded several other ingredients and made lava lamps. Some of the other experiements they did was coloring a carnation, wave bottles, ooblek, germinating seeds, and goop were just a few. This was a very hands on week at VBS. WE also added Mentos to diet coke and watched it go boom. Kathryn won a prize for bringing a friend to VBS and one of the things in her bag was her own coke and mentos experiment to do at home. She and daddy will be doing it soon. I will post the resulting boom.
Our mission project was to restock the food pantry for the needy. The fifth grade won with 150 cans of food and the 1st grade came in second with 120. All together we had 149 children and they brought in a combined total of about 500 cans of food and other non parishables. This was one of the most fun VBS's I have ever participated in. It was so cool to watch the children to understand the connection between science and God's Awesome Power.

Meeting Uncle Randy

Samantha has been in North Carolina for the last two weeks visiting her Aunt , Uncle, and cousins up there. On Wednesday we went with Amanda to Georgia to pick her up. We came back with an extra child, Josh came back too. This was Kathryn's first chance to meet her Uncle Randy.
Where we met them was at this strip mall and behind it was a water cooler in the shape of a giant peach. I tried my hand at an optical illusion. I could not get their hands placed just right. But it is still cute.

Thursday night the kids wanted to spend the night at our place. Remember those tents they played with before. This time they choose to sleep in them. Josh is in the bus and Sam and Kathryn are in th one laying sideways.

Saturday the kids wanted to go to the pool, so they pooled their money and we set off. On the way I saw lightening in the sky and knew that they were not going to let us in the pool so We talked it over and decided to go to the cheep seats and see Horton Hears a Who and then to Chuck E Cheese to play. It was a lot of fun. Kathryn did not want to go to CEC to start off with because she was afraid of being hurt again, but we talked it over and once we were there she was fine.

Sunday afternoon the kids were feeling restless so I encouraged them ( pushed may be a better termonology) to go outside and run off some energy. They found the Croquet set and had a blast hitting the balls all over the yard.

It truly is wonderful to see these three together. They have been like peas in a pod the last few days and with no arguing. It has been amazing.

The Doodle bug went fishing with daddy the other day and look what she caught. Dad said it took all of his persuasive powers to get her to stnd still long enough to get this pic. She wanted nothing to do with the fish once she caught it. She is a lot like me in that respect.

Stitches out

Just to let everyone know Kathryn had her stitches taken out yesterday. She was so nervous about it , but afterward she said " mommy, it was just a pinch and a tug and then it was all done.

Afterward we went to The Mary Brogan Art and Science Museum. Kathryn's friend Grace was moving on Wednesday so while her parents were busy with the movers I took the girl to the museum. This first activity is a bowling ball attached to a string. You pull it back and when you let it go the pressure pushes a tennis ball high into the air. The bottom two floors are science. The girls had the opportunity to experience electricity in it's may forms. This was solar power. On the second floor there was a room that had a sandbox with many types of shells, sponges, starfish and clams. the girls played at this station for about 30 to 45 minutes. I guess I need to get them into a sand box more often. The sand was not sticky enough to build a castle but the girls built towers out of the shells and poured sand over the top to make their own sand castles. On the top floor is the art museum. The topic was early american folkart. There were a lot of sculpures. I thought they were very cool. There were some that were carved out of drift wood. Those were the best in my opinion.
After we left the museum we were sitting outside and I was blowing bubbles that the girls were chasing. These are touchable bubbles. You can catch them on your hand and they won't pop. They are so much fun.
Here Kathryn and Grace are "holding" up the fountain. I was trying my hand at optical illusions in my photography. How did I do? We left soon after this and headed back to Gaces new house to see if they were done. I was amazed at how much the movers had finished. There are many boxes to unpack but the furniture is all in place. All in all it was a wonderful day.

These are my baby owls. They were hatched yesterday. This is their proud mommy. I got her from the Tallahassee Museum Zoo.

Their names are Strawberry, Chocolate, Brownie, Peach, and mommy is Whooty.